Jeffrey Brown has been terminated from his employment contract as executive director of the Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority.

Malkia Newman, chair of the Oakland mental health board, said in a statement to Crain’s that the decision had nothing to do with recent Medicaid budget cuts the authority incurred this year from the state Department of Community Health.

The board voted on the action Wednesday.

Brown was with the authority since 2002, and has been executive director since 2006.

"The past seven years I have had the honor of leading the best community mental health organization in the state of Michigan," Brown said Friday in a statement. "Significant recent socioeconomic changes in our community only strengthened my resolve to insist that people we serve remained first in every decision we made."

In 2012, Brown was given the Hal Madden Outstanding Service Award by the Michigan Association of Community Mental Health.

“As the board moves forward in its search for a new leader whose qualifications match (the authority’s) vision for the future, we want to assure those individuals whom we serve, including people with a developmental disability, mental health illness, substance use disorder, and children with serious emotional disturbance, that they will continue to receive uninterrupted, quality services from our core provider agencies,” Newman said.

“We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Brown for his years of service as (the authority’s) executive director,” Newman said. “His dedication and commitment to help people with disabilities lead independent and self-directed lives is greatly appreciated by all.”

As part of an effort to move to a statewide Medicaid rate for Michigan’s 10 regional mental health authorities, Community Health cut state funding to the authorities by 1.4 percent to $528.8 million during the first quarter of this year.

However, the three county authorities in Southeast Michigan — Wayne, Oakland and Macomb — saw their funding cut by about 5 percent, or $48 million, for fiscal 2013-14 that began Oct. 1, Crain’s previously reported.